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About Daily capital journal. (Salem, Or.) 1903-1919 | View Entire Issue (Dec. 21, 1918)
4 THE DAILY CAPITAL JOURNAL, SALEM, OREGON, SATURDAY, DECEMBER 21, 1918. Revelations From Secret Chapters of Hun Royalty Colonel Schroeder, an officer with the armies of German Crown Prince, once trusted messenger of the emperor, confident and companion of Baroness Else Baronin Schweirin, and until recently aide-de-camp to Rupprecht, the Crown Prince of Bavaria, no wa deserter in Denmark, makes sensational revelations and reveals the hideous secrets of kaiserly intrigue before and during the war. 4HMMMMHMMHMMMtMMM'MMMtHMMMMMIMttMMMHtMtMt , (Continued from last Saturday.) . . ,"Well, Schroeder, you look surpris ed?" .. Surprised! .... I should think I was surprised, in deed, when on May 25, 1916 how well I remember the date, for it was that of no of our gtcat attacks on the French at Vordun 1 came face to face with the Baroness Elsa Baronin Schweirin as I was bringing back a handful of men after hours of murderous and unsuccess ful fighting. . We came dribbling back, tired, sweat ing, bleeding and angry and dejected. There stood the Baroness at the ent mnco of my dug-out. I can say now that it was no uncom mon thing for lady visitors to be enter tained in our trenches, and it seemed that no one had the slightest idea that this lady with the rather thick veil was the notorious Baroness Elsa Schweirin. "You're- not uncomfortable hore. Behrooder," she went on, stepping in side with me. "A bed, a table, ichairs photographs even. It looks as if you were going to stay here some time, my friend, doesn't-it f" . No one was within hearing, so I spoke freely. . ' ! Curse it, yes! Stay here for ever, wa shall. We shall never get Verdun!" I answered. . Those Cursed British. I was just dead beat, and I knew as did pretty well all of ug the usclcssness of our assaults. But orders had to be obeyed, and wo were simply flung in to the pit of slaughter. "That's exactly what I think." The Baroness loant closer to mo. "We wore to have had our Christmas dinner in Paris, 1914, and what is it nowt 1916. Schroeder, this war is going to be a failure for us, I can seo, and it's Brit sin that has done us. But what fools we have beenl What fools! What fools!" She had thrown back her veil, and I saw spots of angry color on hor cheeks. "Yes, the British, those cursed British-" she went on. "Whoever would save thought they would have baffled unf You know a3 well as I do that the retreat from Mons was not a British de feat; it was a British victory, and we shall never win, never, never, nover, un less " "Unless ; what J" I asked, soeing er" hesitate for a moment as if in deep thought. .."Unlosg wo take a chance, . mg ehanco, a great big risk, and that with the navy. What's the go6d oi avji our ships loafing their time nway in the Keil Canal T It's that old fool Tir pitz, pleading caution all tho time. Mein Gott. Schroeder, they've got to go out, and they shall. It means ruin, utter ruin, for Germany if wo oan't do something on the sea!" He is a Funny "Hun." "That fool, that dolt, that idiot, the Crown Prince!" went on the Baroness angrily. "It's his fault. He thinks f """rV. Xmas I ,, . 'Ji ! - - I wiiigllipillfc L Xmas V5:?iT;V';; your V s ravo- nte Wm.S.HART in "BORDER WIRELESS" Make your arrangements accordingly O THE REG 44 aa4aaAAA.A.l.. A. ...lA..-.. himself a heaven-born goncral. Pah I The fellow's only had experience at manouvrcs,, and then he's made a muddle .of -everything he . had ,to do. Look how he throws lives- away here. Oh, it's the navy thatH haev to help us, and that's why I'm hore." - - "But the navy isn't heie, .Frau oar: onin!" I couldn't help saying. "My young friend's getting witty," sho said, a little bitterly. "Well, I'll tell you why I'm hore, Schroeder, because you are coming with me. I've got leave for you at loust, you'll not it immediately you apply, and no questions will" be asked you and you'e got to come with me to Cuxhaven I must have an escort, you know." The German Fleet. I ,was used to being tho Baroness's personal attendant lucky almost it was thon beginning to seem to me and the kaiser himself seemed to prefer mo to any one else as a sort of confidential attendant and go between for him and tho Baroness. And so once more I did as she asked. On our way to Cuxhaven she told mo that tho German generals on the French front had sent for her, that they had decided to ask her help. They know what a hopcloss struggle they were en gaged in and they didn't see why the navy shouldn't help shouldn't at any rnto take a chace. For there was intense discontent on tho part of the army. That the navy should all the time be lying in the Keil canal angerod men who wore fighting. And I may tell you here that every German really, absolutely and literally believed that our navy was invincibl I thought so myself and that is why it was not sent out to fight. It was tho kaiser's favorite toy, and ho eoul not bear the thought of any of his bo loved ships being knocked about. That was one reason. 'Anothor was that the Crown Prth was against the navy coming out, for ho was so convinced in his brainless head that he was going to achieve a colossal victory at Verdun that he did not want his light in any way dimmed. To the Baroness, then, had tho Gen erals appealed, and she had. consented to go to Cuxhaven and use her influon co with the kaiser to get him to send the ships out in force to battle with tha British navy, which, strange as it maj seem, was really despised. "It's for the Fatherland I'm doing this," she said. "I may have taken money before, but that was when I thot victory was certain. Now I know that it isn't, I'd crawly on my hands anfl knees from here to "Cuxhaven if necee sary. , Just remember that, Schrocdor.' A Council of War. "Take this to him," she said to me, when we had established ourselves is tho Hotel Gormania at Cuxhaven, giv ing mo a noto which she had scribbled and put into a thick envelope. Every one knew, of course, whore the kaiser (who was then conferring w!tl the naval chiefs) was staying, and when oN Til ttHMM t.MM.t. information was sent, through the usu al channels, that Herr Colonel Emil von Schroder, the bearer of an important message was waiting to see His Majes ty, I was shown through at once. In deed, right before a crowd of . notables, highly-placed officials, generals, admir als ,and diplomats was the humble Colo nel von Schroeder admitted to the presence. It was actually into tho very midst of a council of war that I stepped. At a long table were seated many great sailors, all of whose faces were familial to me either personally or through pho tocranhs. The kaiser was at the head J of them ,and directly he saw me he rose the others looking up angrily at this in terruption. "Gontlemen," he said, in his guttur al voice, "you are excused for a few moments." He waved his hand towards a door which led into an adjacent room, and they all trooped out, some of them looking very fiercely at mo as they left me alone with His Majesty. He took the envelope which I handed to him, read the fow linos without moving a muscle of his face, without a word of comment, of course; and then looking at me, he said "Tonight at ten, then. That is all." Then he came and put his hands on my shoulders and looked me straight in the face, a way he had when he want ed to bo impressive. "Schroeder," he said, "you're a for tunate man, to be bo trusted. A vCry fortunate man!" he repeated, with a strange emphasis on the words, which I took to mean that that trust should not be abused. In The Baroness's Boom. Ho pointed to the door, and I went out. "At ten o'clock then," the Baroness repeated the Imporiol words after me when I returned to the hotel. "Don't go out tonight Schroeder, I may want you." .The kaiser could do no wrong, accord ing to tho popular idea, and it was not thought at all extraordinary that he should come to tho Hotel Germania to visit a lady. The Baroness had s0 far not been recognized, and had registered under another name. " I was, of course, waiting in the hall of tho hotol to receive His Majesty, who came quite alone and in a navel uniform. I took him at once to the Baroness's sitting-room, and there left 1 thorn alono together. I An hour later a message was sent to ' mo in the lounge of the hotel that the lady, Frau Glattfelder wished to see me at once. Tho Baroness was waiting for me on tho landing outside her sitting-room door, and when I came up she put her fingers to her lips and took me inside. I nearly shouted aloud in surpirse at what I saw. For there, lying back in a chair, with facunt look on his face and a cigar be ing held in a very unsteady hand, was the kaiser himself! To all appearances he was drunk absolutely drunk! But even theough tho evidence was there befire my eyes, to me'this seemed absolutely impossible, ror. whatever else the kaiser may or may not have been; he was at any rate a most tem pcrato man. Ho waived his cigar at me, and tried to speak distinctly. "Von Schrocdor," he said, mumbling his words, "mave you got an Iron Cross !" "Not yet, your Majesty," I answer ed, hoping he wasn't going to bestow one on mo. For the number of Iron cros ses which wero showered around was already tho laughing stock of the army. "Come here, Schroeder, and I will decorate you." The Order For Battle. And, fumbling with the orders on his coat ho wag covered with decorations of all kinds he managed to detach a cross, and pin it on my breast. He al most fell off his chair as he was doing it, and I could have wept with shame as Lknelt by him to receive the honor. This was my emperoT. Tho Baroness went up ,and laid her hand on his arm. "And now you'd better have a little sleep, I think," she said. "As you wish," was the thick re sponse. With her help ho stretched himself full length on the sofa, and closed his eyes. It was not a pjretty sight Vo see onr kaiser lying there in a drunken sleep. "Take this at once to the Marm Amt (offices of the navy). The Admirals are now in conference there. But look at it first. It may interest yon," The Baroness took a sheet of paper from the table, and, before folding it and putting it into an envelope, she showed it to me. "To my brave navy I give the order go forth!" r-(Signed) Wilbelm." I remember the words well. The Baroness smiled as she gave me the envelope. "But how how" I stammered. "How did I manage it you mean, nf Do you ask me that Sehroedcrf" She looked straight into my gace. "Is there a man living who ean resist me when I choose that he should not, especially a man whose secret I, I alone, knowT But you are eoing to know it now, Sch roeder. Look!" I She pointed to the sleeping fngpre on the sofa. And in that moment it came to me that I did not love her at all that I hated herl I saw into the blackness of her heart. - It was, I think now, the figure of the kaiser lying in an apparently drunken sleep that helped to dostroy the lust little bit of illusion. For, although he was, to me at any rate, no longer a great man on a pinna cle, still he was the representative of the German people, of our German Fa therland and this woman bad worked havoc with his soul. A Slave to Opium. "He's in my hands now, he's in my power," she went on, pointing again j to the sofa. "If only I were to let it l be known what what well, what ho does, the Crown prince and his party1 would have him oil the throne in a few weeks, for, Schroeder, he is a slave to opium. I have long known-it, long, long. It is that which accounts for his strange speeches, his Btrange ways at times,' and those curious looks in his eyes. Tonight I saw that he took doub le hi8 usual dose, and that that is the result. He'll sleep now until twelve too late to countermand tho order he has given, even he remembers hav ing given it. Once the machinery to execute that order is set in motion noth ing can Btop it. 1 And now to tho Admir al's room at the Marin Amt." .The Admirals' room at the ww, of fices was a large room, whore the ad mirals and chiefs of the navy were en gaged in conference. At first I had some little . difficulty in obtaining ad mission, but at length I found mysoll before them, and presontcd the scaled envelope from the Baroness to the chief man there. "Gentlemon! " ho cried, springing to his feet after reading the message," To the .Day! We go out to battlo! " Then he read the messago aloud, and every one present sprang to his feet, and Hoch! Hochl Hochl resounded through the room. Thus . the : great machine, Germany ' navy, was sot in action, and the Battle of Jutland was tho result. I returned at once to the Hotol Ger mania, the Baroness having told me to be outside the door of her sitting-room at twelve o 'clock. : I "He'll wake up," she explained to me, "fresh, and with his braiu clear. J shall remind him then of what he's done. He may have forgotten. Jle ics forget sometimos when under the iuflu ence of the drug. So look out for squalls, Schroeder." Shortly after twelve o'clock the kai ser came out of the sitting room with the Baroness, and, to my sutprise, in stead of looking troubled or gloomy, he had quite a pleasant smile on his face. "Ah, tho faithful Schroeder!" he said, "Schroeder, you shall walk home with me. I want some fresh air. " The Kaiser's Surprise. S0 the car, which had boon stolidly waiting in the same spot evor since his arrival, was sont away, and I walked back with the kaiser to his residence, a large private house, taken for tho occa sion. ..;,. As the two senfcrics outside sprang stiffly to attontion, he turned to biu me good night, and suddonly he -took me by the arm and led me under a iras lamp. - "Where did you get that from, Sch roeder!" he said, sternly, pointing to tho Iron Cross he himself had pinned upon my breast. Tho events of the past two hours Uad been s0 bewildering to me that I really hadn't taken time and trouble to exam ine the cross very carefully. It had seemed to me that it was just an ordi nary Iron Cross which the kaiser him self was in tho habit of wearing some times to show that he appreciated the Order.- But now that I looked at it more closely I became aware ot a diff erence. It certainly was an Iron Cross, but along the two centre horizontal arms there ran some lettering. This I noticed as the kaiser took the cross in his fing ers. But even then I did not under stand what it meant till he unhooked it and hold it up for me to look at. There wero throe words engraved on it, and they ran in German, of course To The Bravest I gasped. I had only heard of this decoration; I had never yet soon it, but I knew that it was the highest Order in the land to which a German soldier could belong. Tho Sovcrign himself be longed to it by hereditary right, and it was, of course, in his power to bestow it for any special deed of valor, thouuu sometimes it was given to those who had distinguished themselves in other walks of life apart from military. In the Franco-German War of 1870-71, there had only been three of these Ger man crosses bestowed, and not one in this present war, and yet hero I was with one in my hand now! "ButI I Your Majesty gavo it to me yourself but a short time ago! You pinned it on mv breast. yourself." The Kaiser looked at me hard and long. ' ' Ah, yes, I remember! " he said, mov ing still closer to inc. "It was a bevg deed, Von Schroeder, and it shall be reported in the official papers tomor row. You're a fortunate man, Von Schroeder, a very fortunate young man." Defeat. Again the emphasis on those words which he had used before, and I knew that ho understood, and that he knew that I understood too. And the next day, in the official re ports issued from His Majesty's head quarters and published in the papera there was a mention of the fact that Capt. von Schroeder had been personal ly decorated by His Majesty the kaiser with the Grand Cross Supreme tha: what it was called for an act of the most distinguished bravery. "You'll stop here now, Schroeder," said the Baroness to mo the next day, "until wo hear the news. It's for the 31st." I knew what she ment. The navy was to go out on the 31st of May 1916. And with her I stood watching in a seeludod spot to which a pass olitaired by her had admitted us. Not another soul war near us; only at some dis tance the kniser and a few of his staff. And all of us were watching the dim, lone ships gliding out through the blackness of the night, out t0 the sea Tho joy of feelj3 fit arid fresh rewards those who heed tha laws cf hedth, aci keep tha habits regs- Iar wita . Lars Ml Sal of Any Mficise in K Wort A Sold Erarywnan. In lama. 10c 25c to give battle to the cursed British, om chief foes, as we all knew right well. And when our ships same inijung to home, leaving I can tell the truth now over twenty-five at the bottom of the sea, or else entirely crippled, I shall-never forget the Baroness's face. I was with her in her sitting room, making preparations to leave Cuxhav en, when the news came in. It was brought by an equerry direct from the kaiser himself.. ... "Mein Gott, Mein Gott!" she cried. "This means the end of cverythiugi If we can 't win on sea wo shall never win on land. Fah! tho fools, tho fools!" , ' The 0)ae to Blame. As she said the last words sho looked out of the window down at tho cheer ing crowds in the street below for th news had already gone forth that a groat victory had won by Germany. "Ho was right. Ho was right for once," she went on. And 1 knew what she meant. "Ho said all along that the British navy was stronger than ours; that wo must wait, wait until our new ships were ready, but I porsuaded hiin to do it, and, mein Gott, mein Gott, we're beaten! Twonty-fivo of our ships gone t0 sixteen of the British and they 'itili hold the seas, and we call it victoryl Mein Gott, mein Gott!" There I saw her as the real patriot sho was. . But the next moment tho evil side of her nature came uppermost as she look ed at me and smiled, "But, thank goodness," she Bald, "I've plenty of money put away in Britain, that false country, which will never be beaten now. Oh, we shall be happy yet some day, Schrocdor!" That is the story of how the Battle of Jutland came to be fought. It was jealousy on the part of the army and over-eagerness on tho part of our navy, both cunningly worked and played on by the. influence of an unscrupulous, beautiful woman, but for whom the kaiser would have nevor consonted to allow the aGrman Fleet to leave the safe anchorage of the Kiol clonal. And in that ont thing at any rate he he was right. He doridod the British army, ho thought we should walk over it easily, but in his soul he knew that tho British navy was, and tho great battlo of Jutland, disastrous as it was for my country, must not be doomed his mistake. For that shattering blow at Gorman prestige the Vampire of Berlin was responsible. ' (To bee Ontinued.) (Next week, Colonel Schroeder will doscribe the dramatic events which led to his still further promotion.) Our food Gospel csxi less serve less waste nothing America's Pledge of Food Gave Heart to the Allies InTheir Darkest Hour Whatever is necessary America will send. That wag America's pledge to the interallied food council. And be cause the American food army bad hitherto made good the;- took Ueurt and went forward. Farm enterprise and much soft corn Increased pork supplies, food conser vation Increased exports total ship ments doubled, ' FAITH JUSTIFIED BY EVENTS. I do not believe that drastic force need be applied to main- tnln economic distribution and t sane use of supplies by the l great majority of American peo- pie, and I have learned a deep and abiding faith in the Intelll- Kence of the average American business man, whose aid we an- l tlclpnle and depend on to reine- dy the evils developed by the war. Herbert Hoover, August 10, 1917. t ADVERTISING THE VALLEY. (Hubbard Enterprise.) Tho Northwest Products company with offices at Salem, are doing more for , the Willamette Valley just now t'han any other agency in it. Their advretising iplan carries the expendi ture of more than $170,000 in one con tract alone, with tho Saturday Evening Post, for fourteen pages of ad, ad vertising their products, Lojn, Applju, and their jellies and jams. The com pany is offering to write attractive five year contracts with berry growers, for berries of all kinds and if Hub bard gets busy on acreage a juice plant could be located here. 4c Whn you use Journal clussifi- ed ads get what you want them tothey work fast. EXTRA FANCY CORN FATTED TURKEYS GEESE CHICECENS NOW ON SALE STEUSLOFF BROS, a Wholesale and Retail Butchers And Packers MEATS OF ALL KINDS, SAUSAGES, LARD, ETC Northwest Corner Court and Liberty Sts Perfection and Cleanliness of 5IAI FM flRFfflM Phone 1528 Manufacture WlUJaUIIy "Everything HtHtt))lt)IHMMMttt))ltttltttMMMHHt) While Eating Salem Bread Did You Ever Stop lo Think? That you should buy your clothes from a "SALEM TAILOR" One who contributes to Salem's welfare-and pays taxes and employs Salem men. We can guarantee better materials, better work manship for less money, than offered by Portland Tailors. Give us a trial. D.H.Mosher Tailor to Men and Women 447 Court Street r Mr. Business TRADES PM.gNi As a matter of economy you should consult the Journal's Job Department before placing your printing--we are satisfying Salem's leading firms-put us on your calling list. Phone 81 Journal Classified ads bring results. : : VaUUWil Guaranteed" Salem, Oregon, f H Man